Billy Hunter: Players to Receive 51.2% of Basketball-Related-Income in 2012

Plain and simple, NBA players lost big-time in the labor war against team owners (going from 57% of the BRI to a band of 49-51%, plus a number of other concessions), but Billy Hunter tried his best to positively frame what they came away with in a letter. Per ESPN: “NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter told players that they will receive a 51.2 percent share of Basketball Related Income in the 2011-12 season. After months of contentious talk with the owners on the annual revenue split, which saw the players drop more than seven BRI points from their 57 percent share in the final year of the last labor agreement, 51.2 percent would fall at the high end of the 49-to-51 BRI band that Hunter and fellow union leaders Derek Fisher and Maurice Evans agreed to Friday during a 15-hour marathon negotiating session. As far as the next steps to ratify the agreement in time for training camps and a condensed free-agency period to being Dec. 9, Hunter told players in his memo the various new deal points will be ‘incorporated into a litigation settlement agreement early this week.’ ‘The NBPA will then re-form as a union,’ Hunter wrote, ‘and negotiations may take place on various other CBA issues. The players will then vote to ratify a new CBA.’ If the timeline outlined by Hunter holds, negotiations on the various highly publicized B-list issues — such as potential changes to the age limit for the NBA draft and the rules involved in sending players to and recalling them from the NBA D-League — will happen after the union is reformed. Yet one source close to the talks indicated Saturday night that discussions on B-list matters could resume almost “immediately,” most likely Monday. In the letter, Hunter said the parties were able to reach a settlement on the anti-trust lawsuits filed by various players after the union filed a ‘disclaimer of interest’ to dissolve itself on Nov. 14 ‘because the owners either gave in or sufficiently compromised on all of the open issues.’”